The aim of the symposium is to shed light on the ethical problems related to the COGNIMUND-project, an EU-funded project on visual object identification under direction of prof.dr. Tinne Tuytelaars (ESAT, KU Leuven). Her research team develops a computer-program capable of analyzing pictures and identifying objects. Although the team’s project only focuses on civil applications, applications undermining privacy or enhancing dual-use could not be excluded (e.g. the use of the technology for military purposes by terrorist organizations). Therefore, on request of the European Union, a group of ethical experts under supervision of prof.dr. Johan De Tavernier (CWTE) is assigned to investigate these unwanted side-effects and to formulate advices in order to minimize or even exclude these threats.

The symposium is organized to raise consciousness among the researchers and audience by debating dual use and privacy. As experts we have invited Drs. Bart Van Der Sloot (Amsterdam) to talk about ‘Google Street View: The Role of Object-Identification in Privacy-Abuse’ and Prof.Dr. Quentin Michel (Université de Liège) about ‘Object-Identification: Military and Civil Applications Versus Dual-Use in the European Union.’